Category: Eye Care Information

What gets me up on a Monday morning? Beautiful sunrise, smiling kids, gorgeous wife, coffee? All of the above help but what really gets me moving is knowing I get to ask people, “Which is better one or two?” And knowing that the best answer is, “About the same.” Pure torture 🙂

So what’s really going on when we’re doing the lens monster dance?

Well we’re trying to adjust light rays such that once they are refracted by the cornea and crystalline lens they are converged onto the fovea. Then we reduce the Interval of Sturm to correct any astigmatism. You asked.

“Oh no. I said 3 when I really meant 4 was clearer.” Don’t worry. It’s not only what you say behind the lens monster that goes into your prescription that I’m developing. I use your old Rx, what my instruments tell me, plus what you tell me to determine your prescription. Technicians, nurses, and doctors who can’t Rx glasses and contacts worth a darn only use what you tell them.

“Why is my contact lens prescription different than my glasses prescription?” For one contacts must be fit to your eye as they are a medical device. Different brands, different base curves, etc. all factor in. For the difference in power it is simple optics. As the lens (eyeglass or contact lens) is moved closer to the retina, it needs less minus power. You’ll notice that your contact lens prescription will be less minus or more plus power than your eyeglasses prescription.

So when I think I’m funny and use big technical words to describe eyeglasses prescription determination, then this happens:

And then I know it’s a Monday 🙂

-JB

I love being a Lion. Lions Clubs International is made up of over 1.3 million individuals around the world who live the motto “We Serve.” Maybe you’ve seen us around town wearing bright gold vests while collecting food for the food bank, money for the visually impaired or hosting a dinner for outstanding high school students.

Please join us in one of our biggest worldwide projects: eyeglasses recycling. It’s very simple. You have glasses and millions of people around the world don’t. We work alongside Lions Sight & Hearing Foundation in Phoenix and ALERT in Tucson.

Glasses simply need to be usable. They can be used, but broken and destroyed can’t be reinvigorated. Even non prescription sunglasses and over the counter reading glasses are highly valuable.

Here’s just one example of a pair of glasses traveling from Prescott, AZ to Banlung, Cambodia. This seamstress was using broken glasses since that was all she had. Living in the middle of no where she couldn’t get glasses and even if she did they would cost her about two weeks worth of wages.

Simply bring your eyeglasses (and hearing aids) into our office and we will get them to where they need to go. In fact Dr. Sullivan or I may hand deliver them to someone on the far side of the globe.

-JB

Oh and if you ever want to be my guest at a meeting of the Prescott Sunrise Lions Club, let me know. Thursdays 7am at Waffles N More on Iron Springs Road. Breakfast is on me 🙂

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Funny you should ask.

Our new Optovue iVue is a Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomographer or SD-OCT if you prefer. If you want to know how it works you’ll probably need to get a PhD in electrical engineering and applied physics. Fortunately much like you don’t have to understand internal combustion to drive a car, you can think of the SD-OCT as working like magic.

Measurements are painless and take only a moment. 26,000 measurements per second means we get much more detail than even the highest sensitivity MRI. Dr. Sullivan are able to show you each of the 10 layers of your retina. Not impressed? The entire thickness of your retina is around one fourth of a millimeter.

Who cares? Different layers are affected by different problems: glaucoma vs. macular degeneration vs. diabetes to name a few.

So here’s a patient we saw recently. She was sent over from her rheumatologist because she is taking medications which are known to potentially cause eye problems.

Unrelated to her rheumatoid arthritis and high risk medications, she was found to have normal tension (low pressure) glaucoma. These are tough because patients say “How can I have glaucoma? My eye pressure has always been good and I’m seeing fine.” High eye pressure is only one risk factor for developing glaucoma and peripheral vision loss is very insidious. We now have her on treatment to halt her vision loss.

This new scanning laser is one more piece of equipment that we have invested in because you’re worth it. Fortunately no instrument can substitute for a knowledgeable and caring doctor, but it sure is nice to have them help us out.

Clear and comfortable -o-o-

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Eyeballs fascinate us. The more we learn about vision, perception and ocular health the more amazed we become. It’s tough to share those thoughts with a quick Facebook post or Google Plus listing hence the new blog.

We’ll be sharing about interesting patient encounters (no identifying data of course lest the HIPAA police come a knockin’), new technologies designed to prevent macular degeneration as well as keep you up to date with the latest frame fashions just to get started.

Check back often or put us in your RSS feed so you don’t miss out.

Clear and comfortable       -o-o-